Beyoncé Kicks Off Extravagant World Tour in Stockholm
Photo by Mason Poole / Courtesy of the artist
Much to the world’s, as well as Sweden’s, surprise, Beyoncé decided to premiere the world tour for her seventh album Renaissance in Stockholm. It made the media and fans from all over the world flock to the capital. Being both her biggest and longest show to date, it serves up an insanely massive whiplash of a medley, comprising 37 of her songs.
The last album was released in July of last year and made her the most decorated artist in Grammy’s history. This is her first solo tour in seven years, and very eagerly awaited by fans, especially since there have not been any music videos attached to the project — A good move on Beyoncé's part, as the show benefits from the element of surprise.
Photo by Mason Poole / Courtesy of the artist
Although she’s certainly not known for stripped-down shows, this concert is a tall order of extra everything — truly solidifying the multidisciplinary artist that Beyoncé is. This isn’t just music anymore. During the nearly three-hour-long show, she flies through the air on a glittery horse and vogues with robots. The stage with its frequent fireworks, moving parts and wires cannot be described as anything other than grandiose, and the gigantic props are large enough to need their own trucks. Deciding against an opening act seems wise, who could serve as an opener to that?
Her evolution as an artist is made even more evident by the contrasting opening act. During the first five songs (“Dangerously In Love 2″, “Flaws and All”, “1+1”, “I’m Goin’ Down” (a cover of Mary J. Blige) and “I Care”), there are no clues of what’s to come. Serving as a flashback to her earlier eras, she honors the more laid-back ballads by performing them alone on the stage. After this she disappears, during which beautifully designed futuristic animations show the artist undergoing a transformation, ending up in Renaissance. After this point, there is no looking back.
What follows is a seemingly never-ending dance music medley of 32 songs, punctuated only by pauses every four songs for a wardrobe change. She calls the thematic chapters Renaissance, Motherboard, Opulence, Anointed, Anointed Pt. 2 and Mind Control. Even though she still seemed to suffer from a foot injury from earlier this year — and surly audience members questioned her use of teleprompters to remember the lyrics — this achievement still doesn’t seem humanly possible. It’s a minutely choreographed and fast-paced show, but never sacrifices Beyoncé’s impressive vocal acrobatics. It also incorporates a choir, dancers and a live band. By giving the stage to her dancers during outfit changes, the experience feels more collaborative, justifyingly giving credit to the queer community that served as an inspiration for her latest collaborative music.
The electronic, house and Afrofuturist DJ sound of Renaissance leads the way for the rest of the songs, which are updated to fit the bigger picture. By playing short samples of her biggest (and also most worn-out) songs, she gets around not having to sing them yet still giving homage. But some are clearly missed by the audience, and when they pass by momentarily to great excitement, it's quite the anticlimax when they stop just as quickly.
The strangest priority lies in almost completely cutting 2016’s Lemonade, only one of its songs made it onto the setlist. Maybe she has decided to put it and the themes around infidelity in the past, but as there would be no Renaissance without Lemonade, the missing link between the two makes the switch from the old era to the new too drastic. Also almost no songs are played in their entirety, and with that hectic of a stage show, there are always new impressions but no time to digest them. More variation in tempo would have benefited the whole.
The last part of the show, Mind Control, gets political in tone but also references her haters with a tongue-in-cheek costume change. This time she appears in custom Mugler as a bee, the insect that has become synonymous with her fanbase, the “Beyhive”. A fitting finishing touch to this celebration of Beyoncé's career.
“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to scream, release, feel freedom,” Beyoncé wrote in a press release for the album. The Renaissance tour does just that; it is what audiences have craved since the pandemic. Euphorically cathartic in its excess of campy elements, the show turns the arena into a club and establishes a curated world led by community and inclusion, one that is far more vibrant than the emotionally heavy Lemonade. As much as the album, this tour is history in the making. ♦